Washington Capitals: Top 3 observations of the season so far

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John Carlson, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

We are 12 games into the 2021-22 Washington Capitals season and so far the team is 6-2-4 with 16 points. That’s good for third in the Metropolitan Division. That is also good despite having a banged up lineup that seems to have injuries to big guys week after week.

The latest to go down was Nic Dowd with other injuries happening to Anthony Mantha, T.J. Oshie, and Nicklas Backstrom. On the goaltending front, Vitek Vanecek might be hurt. Still the Caps have kept trucking along and had a solid October before a rocky start to November. Here are the top 3 observations of the season thus far.

#3 The power play still needs work

It has at least gotten better. There was a power play goal the other night against the Buffalo Sabres by John Carlson that was assisted by Alex Ovechkin for the 600th apple of his career. The power play is still ranked 18th in the league however with a success rate of 18.6 percent.

Here are what the power play units currently look like via Daily Face-off:

First unit: Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Conor Sheary, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson

Second unit: Daniel Sprong, Lars Eller, Alex Ovechkin, Dmitry Orlov, Justin Schultz

Maybe to increase Connor McMichael’s ice time, they should give him power play time. Just a thought.

Connor McMichael, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

#2 The kids can play, but some need more playing time

The Caps have had their fair share of injury woes which has allowed some kids to make their NHL debuts this season. In the season opener we caught a glimpse of Hendrix Lapierre who burst onto the scene with an epic goal after a solid preseason. Because head coach Peter Laviolette hardly plays the youth, it was a smart decision to send Lapierre back to juniors with six NHL games under his belt. Doing so means the entry level contract is still intact and a year isn’t burned off.

Connor McMichael is on a three game point streak with two goals in those last three games to go along with a slick assist on a goal by Brett Leason. Leason himself has two goals. This season he has averaged 11:30 minutes of ice time but look for that to change very soon. At practice today he was centering the second line alongside Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong.

Connor McMichael just knew the puck was in for his first NHL goal #ALLCAPS | @con91mcmichael pic.twitter.com/EIXS7MFqe9
— NBC Sports Washington (@NBCSWashington) November 5, 2021

Aliaksei Protas got brought up and he’s centering the fourth line in the wake of Nic Dowd’s injury. And Martin Fehervary is a stud on defense playing up top with John Carlson. Overall the kids have a bright future.

#1 Alex Ovechkin is a man on a mission

The best news and number one observation is that Alex Ovechkin is playing like a mad man at age 36 and it’s a good thing. Part of it is having the need to step up with his teammates banged up. Another part of it has been the improvement of play from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Either way, Ovechkin enters Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings with the chance to be all alone in fourth place in the NHL scoring race.

In addition, Ovechkin required the second fewest games in NHL history by a 36 year old to reach the 20 point mark in a season with 11 goals and 10 assists in 12 games. Ovechkin recorded a goal and two assists in Washington’s 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. It moved him into a tie with Brett Hull with 741 career goals and his second assist was the 600th of his career.

Ovechkin became the ninth active player to reach the 600 assist mark. 368 of Ovechkin’s 600 assists are primary assists which accounts for 61.3 percent which is the fifth highest percentage among active players with 600 assists.

More. Washington Capitals place Nic Dowd on IR, Recall Aliaksei Protas and Zach Fucale from Hershey. light

In addition Ovechkin passed Alex Kovalev (599 assists) for fifth on the all time assist list among Russian born players and now trails Pavel Datsyuk by four assists for fourth place. Wild stuff because almost everyone see Ovechkin as strictly a goal scorer.

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